John Hume: SA needs to change its rhino poaching strategy
The world's largest private owner of rhino, John Hume, is set to go ahead with a controversial rhino horn auction today.
Some 250 horns will be up for auction.
Hume believes there is a need for South Africa to change its rhino poaching strategy, as the current one is not succeeding.
“We losing three rhino a day. We can’t afford to lose these rhino. They will go extinct. Why are we doing the same thing, over and over – expecting a different result? The poaching is not going away,” says Hume.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has lamented the decision to put the horns up for auction.
The organisation’s Jo Shaw says law enforcement officials do not have the capacity to manage the legal trade in horns.
"It's hard to understand why anyone would buy rhino horn within South Africa when there are limited numbers of local consumers and it's still illegal to export rhino horn internationally.”
But Hume differs sharply with the WWF.
“In South Africa we have 1.2 million Asians of which 400 000 is ethnic Chinese. If I could sell one set of horns to each family – this would save the lives of my 15 000 rhinos,” Hume says.